001No, he was scared. All right, it it is now 7:02 p.m. and I am reconvening to open session and calling to order the regular board of education meeting for Indian Prairie School District 204 on Monday, May 19th, 2025. Michelle, will you please call the role? Mr. Kurubis, here. Mr. Rising, here. Miss Deming, present. Miss Donahghue here. Miss Jane here. Miss Fazdik here. And Miss Gint here. We have a quorum. Miss G, will you please lead us in the pledge? I pledge algiance to the flag of the United States of America and to the republic for which it stands, one nation under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all. Stood up. She was halfway through. Okay, we have um some board salutes tonight. Um we'll start out with Miss Dumming. Good evening. Corporate sponsored National
002Merit Scholarship winners. The National Merit Scholarship Corporation released the names of the second group of winners in the 70th annual National Merit Scholarship Program. Approximately 830 distinguished high school seniors have won corporate sponsored national merit scholarship awards financed by about 124 corporations, company foundations, and other business organizations. Four district 204 high school seniors were named in this year's competition. Monish Ramash Jamar, Arman Sidhu and Meline Sun from Nua Valley and Vicram Narish Narishan from Wabanzi Valley. Congratulations on this stellar achievement. [Applause] Miss Jane, District 204 seniors awarded Rotary Youth Scholarships. The board salutes several District 204 students for receiving youth scholarship awards from the Rotary Club of Neighborville. This year's recipients include Matia Valley seniors Zack Johnson and Isabella Siban, Nqua Valley Seniors Ilaga Duzzic, Lauren Varic and Emily Woo, and Wubanzi Valley seniors Xavier
003Bonito and Matthew Weiner. These scholarships funded through generous donations from the Rotary Club of Neapville, Neapville Sunrise Rotary, Neighborville Rotary Charities, Neighborville Rotary Foundation, and members of the Sloum family range from 2,000 to $5,000. Congratulations to all the scholarship recipients. Mr. Kurubus Matia Valley seniors achieved the rank of Eagle Scout. The board salutes Matia Valley seniors Jeremiah Cicero and Henry Freeman for achieving the rank of Eagle Scout, the highest advancement rank in scouting. For his scout project, Jeremiah cleaned up overgrown bushes and plants and created a new flower bed at River Glenn Presbyterian Church in Neapville. Henry built and installed a little free library at Grace United Methodist Church, also in Neapville. Congratulations to Jeremiah and Henry on achieving the prestigious rank of Eagle Scouts. Are any of them here? Miss Gunce and I do
004have two uh Illinois State Board of Education College and Career Pathway Endorsements. The board salutes the seniors from Niqua Valley and Wubanzi Valley high schools who recently earned Illinois State Board of Education College and Career Pathway Endorsements. These students earned the endorsements by following a personalized learning plan, taking classes focused on a specific career path, and gaining real world experience through professional learning opportunities. Great job to all the students on this achievement. District 204 high schools recognized as Project Lead the Way 2024 25 distinguished schools. The board salutes Matia Valley, Niqua Valley, and Wubanzi Valley high schools on being recognized as Project Lead the Way distinguished schools. The Project Lead the Way recognition program is designed to honor districts and schools committed to increasing student access, engagement, and achievement in Project Lead the Way programs.
005Project Lead the Way. Distinguished schools have achieved exemplary results from their programs and are empowering students to thrive in an evolving world. District 204 has three of the 661 high schools in the country to receive this honor for the 2024 2025 school year. Congratulations to all involved. Mr. Rising 2025 best communities for music education. The national national association of music merchants foundation named district 204 as one of the 2025 best communities for music education. The award acknowledges schools and districts across the country for their commitment and support for music education. The selection process is facilitated by the music education research institute at the University of Kansas and is based on music class participation, instruction, facilities, and overall support for music education programming. This is the 14th year Indian Prairie has received this national recognition. Congratulations
006to all our music teachers who provide outstanding music opportunities for our students. Miss [Applause] Fazdik 2025 IAH PERD Health Education Teacher of the Year. The board salutes Niqua Valley Health Teacher Laura Wallen on being named the Health Education Teacher of the Year by the Illinois Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, and Dance. This award recognizes individuals who are making a significant difference in the lives of students through their health education practices. Congratulations on this outstanding accomplishment. I would like to have one more applause for all of those great accomplishments. So, thank you so much. So, our next regular board meeting is on Monday, June 9th. And next up is our student representative report by soa Hel from Matia Valley High School. Good evening everyone. As you know I am Sa Panchchaw and I'm the executive
007board representative from Matia Valley High School. As always, it's an honor for me to be here with you all today as we are approaching the end of the school year. First, I would like to start off with our general updates. Our captain's council visited the Hill and Granger middle schools to give the eighth graders a taste of life at Matia Valley and provide opportunities to get involved. We had 700 students attend prom on April 25th, and our math team was eighth in state. Our calculator team was fourth in state and one student even had a perfect score. Skills USA had many students earn gold, silver, and bronze at state. And we had a team make top 20 at DECA out of 212 teams. Our news team, the main won the high school Emmys. Next, I
008would like to move on to athletics. Leaders from our captain's council will be hosting our first first athletics SBS today. The Badmitten team are going to sectionals this Thursday and the water polo team starts sectionals next week. Lastly, fine arts. The Matia Valley Mariachi Band performed at the first annual Illinois Music Education Association Mariachi Festival held at South Elgen High School on Saturday, April 26th. Our spring musical, Legally Blonde, was a huge success and we hosted the fine arts festival this weekend. That's all for the board meeting today. Thank you all and I look forward to updating you all on Matia Valley in the future. Go Mustangs. Thank you. All right, our next um topic is our school spotlight and tonight it is McCarti Elementary and we will have a presentation from Miss Sherry Frederick's
009and Miss Laura Rays. [Music] Good evening. I am Sheri Frederick's proud principal at McCarti Elementary School. And I'm Laura Reyes. I'm a reading specialist at McCarti Elementary School. Thank you to Dr. Tally and the board of education for inviting us tonight to talk about our annual readout. Um this is an event that has been happening. It's our eighth annual readout. It would have been the ninth if it wasn't for the 2020 year. Uh not said right. Um so thank you for just giving us a chance to to um share some information and and hopefully if you haven't RSVP to attend the readout um it's not too late because it's this Friday. So we're going to start. Uh last year we were fortunate to have NCTV come and do a really nice little about two minute
010segment on the readout. Um we thought they did a beautiful job explaining a little bit more about it. So let me get that queued up here. No fair. Elementary school. As one book closed, another opened at McCarti Elementary School as students began wrapping up the school year with the annual readout event. Each grade level has a 30 minute block of time where they'll be outside to meet with their families who um come to read with them. As the students walk outside, they receive a free bag of 10 books that they will be taking home for the summer to continue their reading over the summer, as well as a reading journal, some colored pencils, and some reading activities to go with the books. Students snuggled up to their parents, opening books full of worlds they explored
011together and proudly showed them the reading progress they made over the year. Whether they were reading to a caregiver, each other, by themselves, or were being read to, the pages kept on turning. Everyone loves books and everyone loves to read, so it's a great celebration. McCarti Elementary is hosted the readout for seven years. It was brought to the school by Reyes, who first held it with their first graders at Kishaw Elementary before bringing it to Mccardi. I spoke with my reading improvement team, and they were on board to doing it with our reading improvement students. But then my team suggested, let's make it a whole school event and we have ever since. Reyes said the readout grows every year with more parents participating alongside their young readers. She hopes to see more schools in the
012district take a page out of Mccard's book and implement a similar reading event. Showing students the joy of books and reading and celebrating how much now they can read at the end of the year. Whether they're reading the pictures or pointing to those site words, they know they're celebrating, I am a reader, no matter what age, they've grown as a reader this year. And it's so important to celebrate that. For Neapville News 17, I'm Jesus Cortez. [Music] Um, so like the video said, I when I was at Kalisha for 10 years teaching first grade, my team did an annual spring readout. It was we just invited parents in to celebrate how much they'd grown that year and any published work too they would share with their families and brought it up to my team when
013I moved to McCarti as a reading specialist. Um and they said no no it should be a whole school event. I'm like okay and so we've done that um ever since. So it's um that's how it started. One of we want to share a lot of the benefits of the readout tonight as well. And one of them is how the community really comes together to celebrate the hard literacy work achieved that year by students and to simply enjoy books together and encourage as well as model that volume reading. Uh over the years we've added more and more VIP community members some of whom are in this room. I'd like to thank always our supporters from the board like Dr. Tally and many of you and even your dogs have come to our readout to support
014our kiddos. Um, we've also included the Aurora uh fire department, the police chief this year the mayor of Aurora is coming and Samuel McCarti himself as you see on the slide. Um, another benefit of the readout is that it occurs rain or shine. So, if there is inclement weather, we simply switch the readout to a readin inside the gym as you see there. Um, and we try to make it festive. We use um, McCarti's wonderful Lou projector. That's what you see on the wall there. We're one of the very lucky schools with the Lou and we put a little outdoor scene so it feels outdoorsy and the kiddos can still cuddle up with their families and blankets and read in the gym instead of outside. Um, and of course we do have students who may
015not be able to have their guest family members attend in which case they join up with other friends and family members um or our wonderful VIPs from the community that attend as well. And one of the key priorities in our district strategic plan is optimizing resources. And another benefit of the readout is to get ahead of that dreaded summer slide when it comes to the lack of summer reading that occurs over the summer months. We do this by choosing to pass out our title one district purchase summer reading packs to our students as they enter the readout. Each Scholastic book pack contains 10 books at their grade level. a writing journal, colored pencils, and family reading activities to do before, during, and after reading, as well as a journal that they can do reading responses
016in for each book. And then a log at the end with the certificate for like how many books they read in the summer. Um, I brought this is a fourth grade example here, and then a first grade example of what comes in the bag over there. It's very important for us to pass out these materials at the readout so we know and see and enjoy seeing them immediately being used by families by students with their parents and they're not just thrown in the closet over the summer and probably forgotten about when they go to the pool. Um this year we added something new as well to increase that fight against the summer slide. We we invited Aurora Public Library to our event as another resource for parents to stop by and learn about free summer
017reading opportunities to get library cards if they don't have them for the summer. And then also new this year they shared with us they're doing a bookmobile and we're going to have them stop by McCarti um over the summer as well to encourage that summer reading. So, the next couple slides are just pictures of everyone enjoying the um the time reading, looking through their their bags, what resources are in there. Um like Laura had said, if if a family can't come to the readout, the kids just join another family. It's really a wonderful thing to just everybody just kind of um figures it out and joins you know either a VIP or another family on their blanket and and starts reading. Another slide of some of our VIPs. Principal Stip has come over. Nice introduction
018to their future principal. And then of course um I know everyone has received this invitation, but um if you haven't RSVPd yet and you would like to attend, these are the times on Friday. Um and like Laura said, it'll be rain or shine. Location will will um you know be determined on Friday. So thank you for this time and listening to our readout. Thank you for highlighting um this excellent event. I know many of us on the board have participated over the years and it is really an exciting um opportunity to see how thrilled these um students are to receive that bag of books and I know my dog Nessie loves coming too. So we will see you on Friday again. So thank you so much. Thank you. I I just want to um I
019have a moment to congratulate Miss Reus as well on Saturday and I'm going to speak about this a little bit later but since she's here she was one of the recipients of um those who excel and um she tonight I think explains why she excels in all that she does. So I want to congratulate you in person again. Thank you. So, I think this is our favorite board meeting every year because we get to do lots of recognitions and um that just help uh fall into the next category of all of these different recognitions. So, we're going to start out with we're going to have Dr. Nicole Howard present our appreciation to the student advisory board. Good evening, Board of Education, Superintendent Thally, and our amazing IPSD community here tonight. We would like to welcome
020new members of the Student Advisory Board and say farewell to some of our graduating seniors who have served us all year. So, we'll begin with our new members. New members, when your name is called, please stand and remain standing. Zara Ahmed, Jay Aori, Ryesh Bagot, Nandini, Chuck Barthi, Grace Dwan, Alisa Fawad, Rukia, Muhammad, Arus, Idh Ragan, Ohas, Sachan, Sheruti, Kerapuk, Karin, Miss Gent, will you lead them in the oath of office? have them raise their right hand. All right, everyone. Yep. You already know. Okay. I state your name do solemnly swear that I will faithfully discharge the duties of the office of student advisory member to the board of education of Indian Prairie in accordance with the Constitution of the United States, the Constitution of the State of Illinois, and the laws of the state
021of Illinois to the best of my ability. You guys repeat that. I'm not gonna make I'm not going to make you repeat the whole thing at once. We're going to go step by step. All right. Excellent. I further swear that I shall encourage and respect the free expression of opinion by my fellow students, board members, and others who seek a hearing before the board while respecting the privacy of students and employees. I shall recognize that a student advisory member has no authority as an individual and that decisions can be made only by a majority vote of the members of the board of education at a public board meeting. I shall respect and follow all board norms and understand that only the board president may speak on the board's behalf. I shall abide by majority decisions
022of the board while agreeing to seek changes in such decisions through ethical and constructive channels. I shall abide by constructive channels. As a member of the student advisory to the board, I shall accept the responsibility for my role in the equitable and quality education of every student in the school district. As a member of the student advisory to the board, I shall accept the responsibility for my role in school district. I shall foster with the board extensive participation of the community, formulate goals, define outcomes, and set the course for Indian Prairie. I shall assist in establishing a structure and an environment designed to ensure all students have the opportunity to attain their maximum potential through a sound organizational framework. I shall assist in establishing structure and environment designed to ensure all students have the opportunity
023to attain their maximum potential organizational. I shall serve as advocate on behalf of my fellow students to advance the vision for Indian Prairie. And I shall strive to work together with the district administration to lead the school district toward fulfilling the vision the board has created. Fostering excellence for every student in the areas of academic skills, knowledge, citizenship, and personal development. Well done. Congratulations. Do you mind if they did not know what they were signing up for? They didn't. You know what? It did. Can the students come up for a quick photo? Do we have time? Yeah, please. Students come up, please. Don't be shy. Come on. Come on. Come on. Just spill. Right. It feels Do you want to come? Okay, got it. Perfect. Thank you. Thank you [Applause] students. And fortunately, the new
024members will not be serving alone because we have some students who are current members who will continue into next year. And at this time, I'm going to have our current members just stand to be recognized. Thank you. You may be [Applause] seated. And now, this part always makes me a little bit sad because I always enjoy working with the students. Um, and when it's time to say goodbye, that just never is never easy. So lastly, we want to recognize and bid farewell to the seniors who served on the advisory. We appreciate their dedication, time, and insights. It's not easy balancing the demands of senior year with the time commitment of being a SAB member. So, thank you for all you've contributed. Um, when I call your name, please stand. We have Hea Hake. It's okay.
025You can clap cuz they're leaving. Shrada Hiharan Isabelle Harper Dia Minan Vita Kotitha and Samir Persada. Thank you again for your service. Be seated. And all the members received their awards prior to this uh meeting today to save time. And I want to give special recognition to the executive members because in addition to attending board meetings and providing perspective, they set agendas and met with their committee members throughout the school year, collaborated with other organizations. They researched and implemented solutions to address student concerns. So when I call your name, please come up and accept your service award and then take a seat for the final presentation. That's Dia [Applause] Minon and Sarayu [Applause] Mandala and filling in for executive member. for Silh Hill Fong who couldn't make it tonight is Isabelle [Applause] Harper. Okay. So,
026we want to give the final presentation of the school year. Um, as you know, this is we're finishing our fourth year of the student advisory and I feel like each year we get a little bit smarter and a a little bit better at what we do and we expect the future years to be no different. Um, so we will begin with reflections from Wansi. Hello everyone. So to start off, um, Aubansi has had a very productive year, um, especially in regards to student outreach and just getting our student population more familiar with what the SAB does as a whole, not just within our school, but also within the district. And we feel that we made significant progress with that. To start off, we continued raising awareness and exploring the plausibility of zero hour PE. So
027this involved talking and discussing um with current students of all grade levels of their expectations for zero hour PE. So how they would want to use that opportunity as well as asking teachers um if they would be willing to implement that as a way to either allow students to have more study time um or any other alternatives to that. Um we also went into researching more about student drug use. Um so researching where and why high schoolers are vaping and smoking. Once again, that's with these uh drug policies that we've heard are going to be discussed a little bit more in the upcoming year. Uh we also worked on student and staff connections. So, we outreached to deans. Um we did some student and teacher surveys as well as reaching out to um various heads
028of departments. So, whether that be the science department, social studies department just to see if we can connect to alumni. Uh furthermore, another thing that we also that did that's not on the slideshow is uh we talked with some members of Lockport High School um about our tribe time um because they were very interested in tribe time and they wanted to sort of explore the possibilities of implementing it in their own district. So we had some conversations with them um and they gave us some feedback a few weeks later saying they really enjoyed that conversation um and are looking to see if they can implement it because they believe it would also benefit their student body. So, yeah. All right. Um, my name is Isabelle Harper and I'm representing NA Valley. Um, we this year
029won the Blue Ribbon Award, so we were pretty happy with like academics and athletics, but there were a couple more like fine-tuning like community things that we decided to work on. Um, one thing that we did was the um Israeli Palestine roundtable talk. So we met with members of various organizations, our um student equity and um Muslim student association as well and then a couple other various ones and it was open to anybody but we just had a very like real raw conversation about from both sides. We had people um who agreed with one side and people who agreed with the other, people who were neutral and we tried to just share facts and then also just get um opinions and humanitize the whole situation because it is um a very important topic for our
030school specifically. Along with that, we also worked with um halal meets. So, we unfortunately just found a lot of roadblocks and we decided it probably wasn't something our district would be able to implement. But we did a couple surveys on it to see what the um want for it was in our school and also talked to a couple people about how this would exactly work, what were the logistics of it. Another thing we um focused on a lot was mental health and awareness. So the Confront the Elephant podcast was something I was really proud to work on with Sohail and we tried to just make again like real raw conversations a big part of our school is just connecting people through humanity and so that's what we really tried to do. A couple extras that
031we did where we um made our own website for just the SAB to try to get more people to understand what we are, get more student feedback, have people reach out to us and it worked pretty well. Also reporting to our principal, we uh talked to Dr. beer a few times and that was really good that he was very responsive to what we had to say and we also did community service night as well. So we had um various community members and all of our community service clubs come in and just have like a big night to show off what they do, get people interested in it and kind of make connections through that as well. Hello, my name is Sar Madala and I'm representing Matia Valley. Um, I'm really proud of what we've done
032this year. One of the main things that we worked on was something called in-depth and not. This is basically an alternative to suspension for vaping. So, I know that's something that we talked about in our board of education discussions last year. So, we were able to create a solution that is an alternative to vaping. So, how it would work is we would address the root problem, the root cause of the vaping to get that behavior to stop instead of just simply giving someone detention or suspensions. Um there have been several studies on this method and it's been seen it's been found that there's a 60% in decrease in recurrence rates when we implement this program. So right now we're testing that at the alternative high school and in the fall we'll be hopefully seeing it
033at Matia Wubansi and Niqua based on the logistics and how it ends up working out at the alternative school. So some of the things that we're really excited about working on for next year is bringing electronic passes to Matia. Right now it's at Wubansi and we right we have we currently have a meeting scheduled with Mr. Debbrooker to discuss how to bring that to Matia and different ways we can get that done next year. Some of the other things are opening up more access areas after school. Right now, an issue that a lot of students have is not being able to study after school or if they're waiting for their parents to um pick them up. There aren't a lot of places they can go other than sitting around in the vestibule, which ne isn't
034necessarily safe either. So, we're looking into more solutions with that at a district-wide level. And um another thing that we found for a lot of the female population at Matia is a lot of class time is being um taken out for literally just find getting going to the nurse's office to get pads because of a lot of the vandalism that we see in the bathrooms. They started removing pads from the bathrooms. So now every single time a student has to go get a pad, they have to go all the way to the nurse's office. All that's really done is cut into class time and is a very big pain for many students. So, we're looking at introducing pads in the houses. And another thing that we're looking at doing is bringing students into the process
035of designing curriculums in some way, shape, or form. So, students can be a little bit more hands-on in what they actually end up learning and giving input during those um curriculum designing sessions. And so some of the discussion with the students as we think about next year and improvements that we want to make, it's uh becoming more involved in the course selection process um and becoming more familiar with the proposals that are going to the board of education beforehand to try to get more uh feedback on the front end as the proposals are being written and supporting the implementation of items that get approved by you. So, uh, thank you very much. Uh, it's been a pleasure working with all the students and I know that they enjoyed working with you and so we appreciate
036all of the support and the time that you've given to hear their voices. Well, thank you so much for we really appreciate the student advisory board and their voices and their input and um the value we have for um having that um come into our our board is something that was relatively new and we we really like having that. So, thank you so much. I know this was extra work on the on your part besides all of the school class work. So, thank you. Yeah. All right. So, next up we have um our inspire awards. The mission of Indian Prairie School District is to inspire all students to achieve their greatest potential. Tonight we will be presenting four district 204 awards to recognize individuals and organizations who make a meaningful and lasting impact on the
037students of Indian Prairie School District. The first award is the Illuminate Award. And before I start, if I could have Crossroads Community Church come up and stand next to me. And if Gomebert would like to as well, the mission of Indian Prairie School District is to inspire all students to achieve their greatest potential. Tonight we will be presenting four district 204 awards to recognize individuals and organizations who make a meaningful and lasting impact on the students of Indian Prairie School District. Our first award this evening is the Illuminate Award which is presented to a community member or organization dedicated to supporting District 204 students and the community. This year's Illuminate Award is presented to Crossroads Community Church. Accepting the award on behalf of the church is Meredith. Is it Cutsel? Yes. Oh, excellent. Director of
038missional care. For over five years, Crossroads has partnered with Gambert Elementary to provide essential resources, foster a caring community for Gambert students, and support educators, truly embodying the spirit of this award through their compassion and commitment to student success. Their dedication goes far beyond occasional assistance. They consistently provide items such as clothing, school supplies, and snacks, helping to ensure that every child feels secure, confident, and ready to learn. Their ongoing generosity bridges critical gaps for families in need and removes barriers that can prevent a student's ability to focus on education. In recognition of your dedication to enhancing lives and creating a caring, inclusive environment, the Indian Prairie School District 204 Board of Education is proud to present the 2025 Illuminate Award to Crossroads Community Church. Congratulations. [Applause] Yes. Oh, okay. Okay. All right. We're gonna
039do all the We'll do the picture at the end. Yeah. They're very sturdy. We're We're going to do a picture at the end of all the award winners. Okay. All right. Next up is the impact award. I could have uh Mr. Matthew White come up. [Applause] Read something while I stand here. Um our second award is the impact award which is given to a staff member who has made a significant difference in the lives of our students. The recipient of the impact award is Matthew White. Matthew is an orchestra teacher at Scullan Middle School and has spent the past 10 years shaping the lives of more than 2500 students through his passion for music and commitment to students well-being. His influence extends far beyond the music instruction. Matthew creates a classroom uh environment that encourages
040kindness, connection, and emotional growth. As many have said, walking into his classroom feels like a hug. With care and compassion, Matthew helps his students grow as musicians and encourages them to be kind, confident, and active members of the community. Matthew's belief is each students potential creates a supportive environment where they feel valued, empowered, and motivated to succeed. On behalf of the Indian Prairie School District Board of Education, I'm pleased to present you with the 2025 impact award. [Applause] Congratulations. Okay, our next award is the Ignite Award. If I could have Ashka Mitha come join me. [Applause] I have the great privilege of presenting our third award, the Ignite Award, which is given to students who are emerging leaders and demonstrate exemplary qualities within a district 204 student organization. I've known Ashka for some time, so
041this is very special. The Ignite Award is presented to Nikico Valley Jr. Ashka Ma, a young leader who has made a big difference in our community. Ashka has always looked for ways to help others. At Spring Brook Elementary, she welcomed new students, spent summers tutoring them in math and English, and planned and participated in science fairs. Each year, she gener generously donates half of her birthday gifts, giving all her birthday money to Gregory PTA. One year at Gregory Middle School, she helped organize a multicultural night during COVID. As a junior ambassador at Hessid House, she leads donation drives for food, clothes, and household items. She now volunteers as at a doctor's clinic and recently became a member of the SA Foundation, a Hindu based Hindu faith-based nonprofit humanitarian organization focused on disaster relief, community support,
042and voluntary volunteer training. At Niqua Valley, Ashka has served on the executive board of the girls in STEM club since her freshman year, where she actively works to inspire and empower more girls to pursue their interests in science and technology. Ashka's kindness, leadership, and commitment to help others truly makes her stand out. On behalf of the Indian Prairie School District Board of Education, I am pleased to present you with the 2025 Ignite Award. Congratulations. Okay, our last inspire award is the inspire award and I would like Janet Zarko Anderson to join me at the podium. [Applause] I now have the honor of presenting the most prestigious award of the evening, the inspire award. This award is given to an individual or entity that has demonstrated exemplary service to the district 204 over a sustained period
043of time. This year's recipient, Janet Zarko Anderson, is a special education assistant at Springbrook Elementary who goes above and beyond every single day. She connects with the students, especially those who need extra care and support, and brings kindness, creativity, and joy into everything she does. In addition to her dedication to the students, Janet is a tremendous support for staff. She maintains the staff lounge, snacks, creates outstanding seal bulletin boards, and helps organize classrooms. Janet's impact reaches far beyond the walls of Springbrook Elementary. She volunteers at the McDonald's Foundation fundraisers, participates in the Indian Prairie Education Foundation, Neapville Half Marathon 10K and 5K, helps lead fifth grade student council, serves as one of the classified staff union union representatives, showing her dedication to both our school and the wider community. Thank you, Janet, for your incredible
044dedication and service. To our district, you are an inspiration to our students and community, and we are grateful for everything all that you do. On behalf of the Indian Prairie School District Board of Education, I am pleased to present you with this 2025 Inspire Award, but please wait. I um purposely asked to present this because a lot of people I don't know who was on the committee that picked these winners, but they did a fabulous job and especially with Janet. I have always known uh that she's a very special person for myself and my family who got a front row seat here. my sister, my husband, my son, because Janet was our nanny and raised our children from when they were little babies until high school. And so, we always knew she was special, and
045it's great to see this school district now recognize her also as a very special person. So, thank you Should I bring it up? Good evening. I am incredibly honored and honestly a little overwhelmed to be standing here as the recipient of this year's Inspire Award. To be chosen out of so many other nominees across our school district is truly humbling. And I wanted to start by saying a big thank you to Dr. Natalie Hy Ross who nominated me and quite honestly could be receiving this honor herself. Winning this award means more to me than I can put into words. Thank you to the board of education and the selection committee for believing that my efforts had made a meaningful impact on the students of Springbrook. Working in special education is not something you do for
046recognition. Most days the reward is the little moments. A student's breakthrough, a colleague's encouragement, a small step forward, or just a high five. But to know that those moments have added up to something that inspired others is an incredible feeling. This award is a reflection of the people around me. All of you. My amazing colleagues, supportive leaders, my family allowing me to have good days and bad days. And the students and families who remind me every day why this work matters. I share this honor with all of you. Thank you again for this recognition. I am truly grateful. [Applause] across the floor. Oh. Oh, there it is. And then here's I can't wait to read it. All right, we're gonna have pictures now. All the winners come up here and um we're gonna have a
047picture. You have to come too. I don't know. Congrats every [Applause] Oh, I think it's okay. awards we're giving out tonight which are outstanding service awards for our student board representatives who have um given us a briefing all year and uh have been fantastic. So I as u Miss Donghue mentioned these awards are going to our students who have come and presented at the board meetings and our first one is to Miss Emily Shield. Emily. Emily is a senior and um Emily uh my she will be going to Bates which is where my um goddaughter's brother has just finished his first year there. So, you know, if you need a connection, I can connect you with Graham and that way you'll know someone there. Congratulations. We have this award for you and a gift card
048to Amazon. Okay. You're welcome. Thank you for all you do. Then to our junior uh Soha Pangcha, are you here still with us? So, she left. So, we have an award for her, but she will be back next year. And then another junior, Benjamin Gula. Is Benjamin with us still? Here we are. Benjamin. Thank you, Benjamin, for all you've done. All right, that's for your award, too. Right. And then, so let's get Benjamin and Emily up here, and we'll do one one picture. Thank you all. [Applause] As is our custom, the board would also like to take this opportunity to recognize our administrative retirees. Tonight, we are honoring Kimberly Malone. Congratulations with us. It's a proclamation Prairie School District 204 proclamation. Whereas, Kimberly Maloney devoted 14 years of her career to serving students and families
049of Indian Prairie School District 204 with leadership roles as an assistant principal at Gregory Middle School, an assistant principal at Matea Valley High School, and the principal of the STEPS program. And whereas Miss Maloney started her 31-year career in education as a language arts and science teacher at CS McCullof School in Chicago. She held teaching positions at Glenside Middle School and Glendel Heights and West Chicago High School before being appointed dean of students at Planefield North High School. She later served as the athletic director at Hinsdale South High School. And whereas Miss Maloney earned her bachelor's degree from Depal University and her master's degree from Aurora University. And whereas Miss Maloney was elected to the Illinois School Board Association in 2005 serving Winfield School District 34. And whereas Miss Maloney is a dedicated Special Olympics
050volunteer and Makea-Wish service member. Now therefore, be it proclaimed that the Indian Prairie School District 204 Board of Education, Administration, and Community honor Miss Kimberly Maloney's dedication and devotion to the students, teachers, and parents of our community. We are grateful for all she has done for our students and we wish her the best as she moves into the next chapter of her life's journey. Indian Prairie Community School District 204, Board of Education and Administration, May 2025. [Applause] Thank you. It's been my greatest privilege. Say a few words. Kim, would you like to say Would you like to say something? Um, thank you. It's been my greatest privilege. Thank you. Your friend [Music] [Applause] We now move to our consent agenda and superintendent report. We have no public comment tonight. We will start with the superintendent
051report. Thank you, Miss Donahghue. Members of the board of education, Indian Prairie Community, we're approaching the end of the school year with a myriad of things that are happening and being accomplished at each of our schools. From fifth grade clapout at the elementary level to promotion ceremonies at the middle schools to prom at the high schools, all of those and more are happening in our buildings. This Saturday, I was able to attend our annual fine arts festival. It was a delight to see all the artwork that students have created and listen to the wonderful music that our students performed. I want to thank all the teachers for their efforts in creating the event. I want to thank the students for their performances and showing their art. Pulling all the art and gathering all the students
052together is not an easy task. It is a testament to our staff for their commitment to the to this event each year. And finally, I want to thank Indian Prairie Education Foundation for sponsoring the event. Saturday night, I was in Bloomington to attend the 51st annual Those Who Excel and Teacher of the Year Award Banquet. During the night, several of our staff and a parent were honored with awards. From Georgetown, Miss Christina Min, Miss Claire Johnson, and Miss and Miss Saresia Holmes. From Mccardi, Miss Laura Reus, and from Brooks, Miss Sydney Poke. and one of our parents, Miss Jillian Gibson from Georgetown was also recognized. Additionally, we heard a wonderful speech from Miss from Dr. Rachel Mimmude, Illinois 2024 teacher of the year. Earlier, you heard a board salute about Project Lead the Way that
053all three of our high schools were recently identified as Project Lead the Way Schools of Distinction. I just want to share just a little bit more information about this distinction. This is the third year in a row that all three of our high schools were have earned the award. This is the seventh year in a row that at least two of our high schools have earned the award. And finally, this is the eighth year that at least one of our high schools has earned the award. We celebrate all the uh project lead the way um staff for their hard work over the years. And we must also add Mr. Ryan Giovenini, director of innovation and instructional leadership, for his actions leading this work for the district. This Sunday, we'll be able to celebrate our seniors
054as we hold our graduation for all three comprehensive high schools. We will start though, as we always do, this Thursday with Gail McKenzie celebration. We look forward to attending all of these events and celebrate the hard work of our students. As this is the last board of ed meeting before the end of the school year, I will end my comments by thanking our staff for an amazing school year. Their dedication and commitment have helped us achieve the success we have as a district. To our students, thank you for all of your hard work this year. What you thought would be a very long year is almost over. Your hard work has paid off. And to our community, thank you for your engagement in our schools. We are only as good as our community. We have
055a great partnership and that partnership enables us to do all that we have been able to do this year for the benefit of our children. I hope all of you have a wonderful summer. Miss Donahghue, I'll now turn the meeting back to you. Thank you. I now need a motion to approve consent agenda items D through P. I move that the board of education approve consent agenda items D through P as presented. I second. Any discussion? Michelle, will you please call the role? Miss Gent? Yes. Miss Jane? Yes. Mr. Rising? Yes. Miss Donahghue? Yes. Mr. Kurubis? Yes. Miss Deming? I. And Miss Fostic? Yes. The motion passes. Next, we move to our action items. I need a motion and second to approve the first reading of board policy 7 col 30 student assignment and intrad
056district transfer as presented. Move that the board of education approve board policy 730 student assignment and intradist transfer first reading as presented. I second. Any discussion? Okay. Michelle, will you please call the role? Miss Fik, yes. Miss Jane, yes. Miss Kint, yes. Mr. Kurubis, yes. Miss Deming, I. Miss Rising, yes. Mr. Rising, sorry. Miss Donahghue, yes. The motion passes. I need now I need a motion. I'm not going to read this long thing related to um the bonds, issuing the bonds. I'll make a motion that the board of education approve the consideration and action on a resolution providing for the issue of not to exceed 156,500,000 general obligation school building bonds series 2025 for the purpose of paying certain costs of those capital projects approved by a referendum at the November 5th 24 2024 general
057election providing for the levy of taxes to pay said bonds and authorizing the sale of said bonds to the purchaser thereof as presented. Second. Any discussion? Do you have some comments? Yes. Uh just a few comments. I think that's on. Turn to Michael. Always always a 50-50 shot. Uh all right. Good evening. Uh this evening I have with me Bob Lewis. He's our uh district's municipal adviser with PMA Securities. Uh so we'll just provide a little bit more background on tonight's resolution and then be available to answer any questions. Uh this evening, administration is recommending the board of education approve the bond parameters resolution which will provide for a bond issue not to exceed $156,500,000 of general obligation school building bonds. District voters overwhelmingly approved the district's referendum at the November 5th, 2024 general election.
058The referendum question authorized up to 420 million of bonds to fund capital projects throughout the district. This bond issuance would be the second bond issuance related to the 2024 referendum. The first issuance was completed successfully in December of 2024. That was in an amount of 14,160,000. So the remaining authorized bond capacity is 405,840,000. So even after this issue, we will continue to have significant bond capacity to continue to facil to fund facility improvements throughout the district. The parameters outlined in this resolution are consistent with the commitment made to district taxpayers during the referendum campaign. Mainly the bonds will be structured so that there will not be a tax rate increase resulting from the issuance of these bonds. The parameters are also consistent with prior board presentations and discussions, including our initial plan of finance presented
059at the October 21st board of education meeting. The portion of these bonds that are issued with a maturity of greater than 10 years will be subject to a call option. And this means the board will have an opportunity to refinance a portion of these bonds at a later date if that is a if that is advantageous to the district. If approved this evening, we plan on selling the bonds on Tuesday, June 3rd by a competitive sale. And this resolution authorizes the CSBO, myself, to conduct the sale in line with the parameters noted. Uh it would give us up to six months to to complete that sale. Um but again, our intention is to complete that uh in early June. Our municipal adviser and I will continue to monitor market conditions and may update the timing
060depending on the conditions. Uh, as we communicated at the last board meeting, the interest rate market has been a little volatile recently with recent news about the economy, tariffs, and federal policy impacting rates paid by all borrowers. With that said, we expect this issuance to receive a a strong credit rating and ultimately receive a very competitive interest rate uh despite the current environment. We will update the board if any uh ch if there is any changes to the timing. The bond proceeds will be used primarily to fund a variety of projects planned for 2025, 2026, and 2027. These projects include comprehensive improvements to Avonzi Valley and Nqua Valley high schools, safety and security improvements at all district buildings, and life safety and infrastructure improvements throughout the district. All project components, including budgets and timeline, are
061materially consistent with the district's mater master facility plan and the needs articulated during the referendum communication campaign. Administration will be presenting to the board and community a master facility plan update at the June 9th board of education meeting. Uh so with that, uh Bob and I are available for any questions. Is there any questions or discussion? So um just to clarify you mentioned that we'll be getting an update. So this particular issuance we'll get a little bit more detail regarding the impact this where this particular issuance the area that this particular issuance will impact. That's correct. Yes. So we did uh we did a small issuance in December and that was primarily to to fund work through this uh spring and early summer period. uh this issuance is really designed to fund significant work uh
062over the next 24 months or so. Okay. And that that work will be the focus of our our uh discussion in June. Okay. Perfect. And and if I could just I I know you did this last time too, but once you put it off for competitive bid and you land on what we land on, we you you'll send a memo to the board and let us know the rates that you got and everything. Okay. Just making sure. Correct. And yeah, for uh as mentioned in in early December, the the uh issuance we did was very competitive. We had uh I believe 10 underwriters who who bid on that specific issuance. The interest rate we received was under 3% for the the total issuance. So very competitive. Uh this one will probably come in a little
063higher than that just because we expect the terms to be a little longer and again just current market conditions. But uh we expect it to be very competitive. Okay. Any further discussion? I've got some discussion. On page 24 of the um resolution, we talk about issuing uh 28 million per year. Is that uh is that correct? Is I'm reading that right? That's every year be below that. That's the maximum that was set to correspond to the plan of finance that we've reviewed with you. Uh so I don't expect anything to be that time around, but since that's the maximum parameter for the whole plan of finance, right? You know, if we need the flexibility to make any adjustments, we usually set at the maximum for the plan. But I expect this financing independently to be
064substantially lower than that. So we're not giving you parameters on the interest rate. We're not saying you got to be between X and Y interest rate. There's a maximum interest rate in there. I believe it's five and a half percent. But that's the coupon rate. We anticipate the yield would be somewhere between four and four and a quarter percent, but usually municipal bonds, not usually, almost 100% of the time they're sold at a premium. So the coupon rate that you pay interest back is above the rate that um it yields because the investors pay you a premium to buy that bond. Right. Okay. And Matt, where are we at with updating um the community on um the the work that is being done from the bond issuance? You mentioned that the we're going to have
065an update with the board next week. Yeah. The so the the June 9th meeting I think will will provide a significant update to both the board and the community on our on our progress. Uh we've asked the board for uh really at almost every meeting we've asked for some approval related to projects for for both the summer 2025 and some uh work con um continuing. I know that um at sometimes that comes a bit peacemeal or or kind of you know one or two at a time and we maybe haven't provided as comprehensive of a picture where we're at. Um again I'd say we're in line with uh and and we're consistent with what our master facility plan work was. So, we're in line to to complete about $40 million worth of work uh both
066this summer and into early fall. The focus of that work is uh secure vestibules at 11 of our buildings, the Wubanzi auditorium, uh beginning district-wide LED lighting replacements, and then variety of infrastructure improvements. uh we will be uh kind of corresponding with the June 9th meeting updating the uh safer stronger 204 uh website to really provide a more comprehensive view by project. So showing uh a project dashboard if you will for every major project uh you know updated budget and timeline as we move forward to the project as well as sort of a summary of all those board um actions tied to the project. So, uh, we do expect to to release that to the community in line with our, uh, update at the next board meeting. Perfect. I think the communication aspect is key.
067I think we're a little bit behind on that to to say we're going to be going live with the website in June. Um, when we issued bonds in November and started work already, I think we're a little behind on that. So, I'd like to get a little bit more aggressive with the website so that the community can see a little bit more what we're doing. They don't always pay attention to the board meetings as often as I would like. So I think on the website would be nice to be a little bit more aggressive. I think where I struggle with on the board from the board communication standpoint is the the consent agenda items. Um you know you get uh a request for uh to bid the LED lights and then to permit the LED
068lights. um you know, I don't need to be um from a board disclosure standpoint and kind of communication standpoint, I don't need don't need to be involved in all of that. But we have this master plan and then we have a bunch of these little consent agenda items that go on the master plan and I would like to look forward to say when do we anticipating getting things at at the board level. So it's the master plan says we're going to design it, we're going to bid it, we're going to do it. Um when are we going to bring stuff to the board? Um and then kind of in what chunks so that I can understand as a board member what to expect when. Um and I know we have our planning calendar, but it
069doesn't have this level of detail, nor should it. I think there's more of a board master plan level. This is something I would request. Sure. I uh understood. Uh I I I do want to um just kind of re reassert that we are we are on timeline and we are um on budget with with the projects we we discussed during the referendum. I think uh it has taken a few months to get some of our design and construction teams on board. That's been some of the recent um approvals including um approving construction management teams for both the Wanzi Niqua projects. uh those teams bring with them a lot of the resources we're looking to use as part of communication. They have extensive experience uh communicating with uh with community on these large scale projects. So
070um you know it was important to get those team members on board so that we could could start some of that work and uh um understood I think from a from a board perspective I I the points taken I think we can do a better job of um ju just cross referencing some of the approvals with with specific projects and and timelines and budgets. I have no I believe you're doing a great job. I think you're on the right page. I think it's communication and so you you know you mentioned the team And I believe we have that in place, but you know, I just get snippets that we're hiring an owner's representative and then a construction manager and then, you know, we're amending the architect's agreement and expanding the architect's agreement. I would like,
071you know, kind of just give me a what's happening with the team, who's on the team, what's the team doing? And I think that would help me as a board member saying um to to act as a an okay and approval saying, "Yeah, we are on time. We've got a team in place. So, um, rather than one off, oneoff, one off. So, thanks. But to reiterate, we are aligned with the plan that we put in place. Yes. So, yeah. All right. Um, any other discussion? Okay. Michelle, will you please call the role? Mr. Rising? Yes. Miss Deming? Hi. Miss Gint? Yes. Mr. Kurubus? Yes. Miss Fosdic? Yes. Miss Jane? Yes. And Miss Donahghue? Yes, the motion passes. All right. Does anyone have any legislative or advocacy or board of education update other than we need
072to recognize Mr. Rising for his recent Um, you can say a couple words. Um, yeah, I guess I it's kind of weird um talking about myself. Uh so I was recently appointed um IASB division director um by the executive board of IASB for DuPage division. Um in that role I will be representing the whole county of DuPage which consists of 42 school districts and 294 schoolboard members. uh at the state level. Um and uh I hope to do a good job and I'll serve in that position for the next two years. Um to that point, uh we have our first division director's meeting June 5th and June 6th in Springfield. So I will be attending that. Um, and I'll bring information back to you just like I will to the DuPage directors. Uh, so that's
073that. And then, um, next Tuesday, May 20th, or no, oh, it's tomorrow. Geez. Uh, tomorrow, May 20th, uh, is the working group that I'm on for IASB that works with, uh, Dr. Tony Sanders, the superintendent, and his cabinet. We have our meeting tomorrow at 10:30. Um, I asked the question to give us more information about what they're doing on proficiency other than what has been written and we've seen out there. I kind of want to understand a little bit more behind the scenes stuff. Um, so, you know, let me know if you have questions between now and 10:30 tomorrow morning. Um, because we'll be talking with his cabinet on that and I'll let you know what what comes of that and give you feedback. So yeah, that was a long document to read. Yes, it
074was. Yeah. Um and clearly they still there's still they haven't landed on things. So yeah, I also want to recognize Miss Fazdik and the lend um group. Maybe you just say a couple words about your role there. I um was asked to represent our our school district um on the lend executive committee. So I had just my first meeting the legislative education network of du page um keeping tabs on the legislation that's happening in Springfield. Um and so we just had our first introductory meeting last week. we have our the general lend once a year in person meeting on Friday. Um so I'm excited to be able to do that for the next year. So thank you all for your advocacy and for representing us at at these important um bodies. So thank you so
075much. All right. Now I we need to move to recess to executive session. I need a motion and a second. I move that the board of education recess into executive session. I second. Any discussion? Okay. Michelle, will you please call the role? Mr. Rising? Yes. Miss Jane? Yes. Mr. Kurubis? Yes. Yes. Miss Fosdic? Yes. Miss Donahghue? Yes. Miss Deming? Hi. And Miss Gint? Yes. The motion passes. We're recessed to executive session.